


Absence of Flames

by ItsYourLocalBi



Series: Dream SMP [4]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angry Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream is Bad at Feelings (Video Blogging RPF), Denial of Feelings, Emotionally Compromised, Fire, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Touch-Starved Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Visions in dreams, Wilbur Soot is Not Insane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:07:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29665647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsYourLocalBi/pseuds/ItsYourLocalBi
Summary: Dream didn't like the way the fire left him feeling cold.Based onfor sunlight.byemibau
Relationships: Clay | Dream/Wilbur Soot
Series: Dream SMP [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139846
Comments: 3
Kudos: 75





	Absence of Flames

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [for sunlight.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29653215) by [emibau](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emibau/pseuds/emibau). 



> This is a fic based on emibau's story [for sunlight.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29653215/chapters/72906255) It heavily draws on events from the first chapter, so I suggest you read that first! (Seriously. Go read it, it's really good.)
> 
> Also, I am trying to get to everyone's requests, but the one I was working on got deleted three times without saving and I'm working up the energy to try again. In the meantime, please take this!

Dream couldn't breathe. He couldn't escape the feeling of rising heat all around him. The world seemed to grow brighter and brighter, but he couldn't see anything beyond whatever invisible fire surrounded him. He felt unease and panic set in, and he gripped the handle of his axe tight. He tried to inhale, but every instinct he had fought against the urge, and on some insane level he knew the fire would only worsen should he let it in.

Suddenly, it felt as though the flames themselves wrapped around the axe, tugging it away. Anger bloomed in his chest as he watched his axe leave his hands, hovering almost mockingly just out of arm's reach. He felt the fire go for his armor next, and wrapped his arms around his chest. The action was useless, however, and before he knew it, the metal had melted away.

Left defenseless, the flames were unforgiving, passing right through his skin, curling around the base of his spine, up and around his ribcage, reaching deep inside of him, brushing against something cold. Dream flinched away from the fire, and, suprisingly, this time it stilled.

Before he had a real moment to wonder why the heat had stopped closing in, the brightness around him moved, flames becoming visible as they clustered together and took the form of a body. The figure's features became more defined, and he gasped sharply as Wilbur Soot's eyes opened, the fire and heat roiling behind them scorching Dream's nerves, hotter than anything he had felt so far.

He couldn't move as Wilbur stepped closer. He couldn't back away, even as the smile stretching across the man's face set his heart beating in a way that made him want to run with every fiber of his being, and his anger flared. The flames curling around the cold inside of him surged forward once more as Wilbur lifted a hand to Dream's chin, curling under the edge of his mask. Dream wanted to fight, wanted to thrash and scream and claw at the man in front of him, but the fire was dissolving the cold inside of him, leaving him breathless and unmoving as his mask, his last true defense, was gently lifted away from his face.

Like a sucker punch, an overwhelming amount of _feeling_ poured through him, intense and raging and overwhelming to a point that he would have stumbled if he could move.

The fire in the Wilbur's eyes brightened, a victorious grin lighting up his face in a way that made Dream want to punch him and hold him close and suffocate him all at once. He hated this. He hated feeling so unapologetically seen. Wilbur dropped the mask carelessly, his hand coming up to Dream's face.

The touch should have burned. Dream wished it had. He wished he wanted to recoil from the hand that gently cupped his face. He wished that his instinct was to flinch away from the thumb that soothingly brushed his cheek. He wished he wanted to shove Wilbur away when he felt his other arm wrap around him. He hated that none of that happened. He hated how the fire grew hotter inside of him and how his breath caught in his throat at the sheer awe burning in Wilbur's eyes.

"What is it about you?" The man whispered, his voice echoing as he drew closer. Dream's eyelids grew heavy and, despite every other instinct he had screaming at him, he recklessly, foolishly, let them close and leaned into the touch.

The flames ( _Wilbur_ ) overwhelmed him, burning away the last of the cold before he could do so much as think twice.

_______

Dream's eyes flew open and he shot up in his bed

He stared into the darkness of his room, breathing heavily. Sweat dripped down his neck and back, leaving his skin to cool in the early morning air. Part of him wondered where the warmth of the flames ( _Wilbur_ ) had gone, and another, more traitorous part of him longed for it ( _him_ ) back.

It took him an embarrassingly long moment to realize what was going on. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth.

It was a dream.

A chuckle forced it's way out of his throat and he buried his head in his hands. Of fucking course it had been a dream. Nightmare. He should call it a nightmare. Because he'd been helpless as Wilbur had taken away his mask. He'd been _willing_ as Wilbur had cupped his face and- 

No.

It was just a dream. Nightmare. Had to have been. People don't survive standing in fire that long except for in dreams. Nightmares. Why was that so hard to remember? It had been a nightmare and to call it a dream implied that it had been good. He flinched at the memory of the fire curling around the cold inside of him. It hadn't been good, it had been terrifying.

He could still feel the surprisingly gentle warmth of Wilbur's hand as he had let himself be held close. His mind wandered to earlier that day, and for a moment, he wondered how it might have been different if he'd let Wilbur actually take his mask away. Would he have held him? Would he have cupped his face and smiled? Would he have tilted Dream's head up and-

Dream's eyes widened in fear as he cut off his train of thought. _No._ This was why it had been a nightmare. It allowed questions to plague him, doubts and feelings to taunt him. He couldn't let it get to him.

Wilbur was dangerous. Wilbur had everyone else on this server fooled. Wilbur used pretty words and charming smiles and stupid jokes that brought people together in order to cover up the fact that he could just as easily turn people on each other. Dream knew that game. That was his game.

So why was he _losing?_

Anger washed over him and he let it, because anger was better, easier, than fear. He wished he hadn't seen Wilbur earlier that day. He wished Wilbur hadn't seen past his front. He wished he'd just beheaded the man, right then and there, before Wilbur had taken his dignity along with his axe. He wished he'd never let Wilbur close enough to feel his warmth.

He clutched at his chest to find that the memory of flames ( _Wilbur_ ) had left him cold. Empty. As though whatever had been there had been turned to ash and dust. Soot.

Even in dreams, the man lived up to his name.

Dream was so caught up in his head that he forgot he was supposed to call it a nightmare. Slowly, he grabbed at a blanket at the foot of his bed, pulling it around his shoulders in a feeble attempt to block out the chilling air, both inside and out.

When he finally lay down to go back to sleep, it was with a horrible wish to seek out the flames once more.

( _Because it was easier to wish for flames rather than the man who brought them._ )

**Author's Note:**

> I just really love this dynamic guys. Let me know what you thought in the comments section below! If you have any requests, please check the notes of my first work on this series for boundaries. 'Til next time!


End file.
